Tyranny is like the electric wiring in an old house. A tyrant dies, the new tyrant takes possession, and all he has to do is drop the switch.

In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job.

A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

Yet it's not for want of future that I'm here, he thought. It's for want of a present.

It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely.

Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided.